Kununurra and Wyndham 08 September 2013

After a second afternoon of sand flies and another evening of bright, bright stars we departed Keep River on Saturday morning and hied off to Kununurra WA. Of course we had to go through the obligatory fruit and veg (and honey, seeds, and some nuts) gestapo station at the border, but the designated inquisitor was quite nice about it all and we only had to sacrifice a couple of apples, some sliced zucchini and a diced avocado.

 As luck would have it, it was market day in Kununurra which allowed us to restock a lot of our fruit and veg (coincidence or conspiracy???). Picked up the rest at the supermarket then headed off to the Lakeside caravan park for a few days stay. Geez it gets dark early here! with the two hours knocked off the clock for WA time it is reminiscent of Melbourne in winter (apart from the winter bit of course) with sunset around 5:30PM.
Woke up at 06:00 (going to take some time to adjust the body clock) to a new Prime Minister. Old budgie smugglers himself. Same same but different....
Cooked breakfast today, which was very nice, then off to Wyndham for a sticky beak. First stop was for fuel (almost always is) then the Ivanhoe Cafe for a mango smoothie - very good, but made us both wish we had eaten a little less breakfast :)
Our luck was out as Ivanhoe Crossing was closed with a lot of very fast moving water pouring over the causeway, so we had to forego the scenic rout to Wyndham and double back to the highway instead.








What can we say about Wyndham? It's got the Big Croc. It's got a port. Did I mention the Big Croc???? All in all the place reminds me of Coober Pedy. I don't feel any urge to ever go there again either.

At least there are no cyclones at the moment.

Wyndham in a nutshell

Prado Spotto all tied up at 169 each.

Keep River National Park 06 September 2013

Well, we woke up, had a look, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Maybe we are just not sunrise people, but we were majorly underwhelmed by the colours on the cliff faces. Still, not a complete loss as we did manage to get up, have a shower, have breakfast and pack up all before 08:00 which is a definite first. Set off for Keep River National Park, which is just before the border with WA, and is supposed to have some rock art and hills reminiscent of the Bungle Bungles.
First stop was at Gregory's Tree. Now if you did Australian History under the same syllabus as I did, you will have never heard of Augustus Gregory, but he led a successful North Australian Expedition 145km up the Victoria River in 1855/6 and explored the surrounding countryside from a base camp beside of the river. Here there was a Boab tree which the expedition's artist carved the arival and departure dates. Hence 'Gregory's Tree'. The provenance on this one is a lot more solid than the Stuart Tree from Daly Waters!





Rocked into Keep River NP to find the campground deserted, but thoughts of having the place to ourselves were soon dashed and most sites were filled by sundown. Not a problem though as there is plenty of space between sites.
Found a new game to play in the afternoon - feed the local ants with squished sand flies. The bloody flies got so bad that we spent a couple of hours reading in the camper to escape them. Had dinner and watched the stars come out - beautiful.
Next morning it was up and at em. Once breakfast was done we set off to Jarnem Lookout to view the beehive rock formations and then on to Nigil Gap for the rock art - just as well we had been to Kakadu ans Arnhem Land, or we would have had trouble even picking out most of the pictures here - very faded and very simple in subject and execution. So, don't bother going to Keep River for the rock art, but it is worth the effort to see the rock formations. Stunning views.
Speaking of stunning views - as we were diligently tromping along the winding path to enlightenment (oh alright then, climbing towards Jarnem Lookout), we did espy a female Euro tourist, naked from the sandals up, walking in a very uninhibited manner down the hill towards us. She was followed by a fully clothed male Euro tourist whom we surmised she was trying to entice into wicked ways. It was most amusing when after she had continued for at least 30 metres, she suddenly noticed our unintentional intrusion on her sun worshiping gambol and scuttled behind her man while donning a sarong of a shade of blue which nicely set off the red of her embarrassed cheeks.

It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it

Victoria River Roadhouse 04 September 2013

Spent last night back in the Shady Lane Tourist Park, Katherine. We had the site behind the one we were in last time, and camped in our old spot was a couple with a gold 4.2 lt GQ Patrol and an Aussie Swag Camper. Only way to tell us apart was that they were both silver headed and their camper was an older white model, but still looking the goods. 'tis a small and strange world in which we live.
The journey west begins today with a short hop to Victoria River. Very glad to be finally finished with the Stuart Hwy which we seem to have been going up, down or to, for a lifetime and a half. There is a plethora of WWII related stuff from Alice all the way to Darwin, with signs to a multitude of airfield, hospital and barracks sites off all the major roads, but one on the Victoria Hwy must surely take the cake as the biggest tourist attraction of the lot of them - Maroopu WWII Abattoir - how could anyone resist dropping in for some historical cultural expansion? Pretty easily as it turned out.
Arrived at the Victoria River Roadhouse to be asked "Is this where we are staying the night?", followed quickly by "Can we go on to the next place down the road?". The maps, and the books were duly consulted, and we stayed. I think the sign over the Roadhouse advertising that it was "Under new Wife" may have swayed the decision. That and the fact that sunrise on the hills over the rad is supposed to be pretty special. Now we just have to remember to wake up early enough.....

Arnhem Land 02 September 201

Jumped into the 'comfortable vehicle with forward facing seats', aka the Toyota Coaster bus, at 08:30 and submitted ourselves to the tender ministrations of Lords Safaris with fifteen other expectant looking guinea pigs for a day's adventure in Arnhem Land, and more specifically Injalak Hill and its rock art.
The brochure states that a reasonable level of fitness and agility is required. That's probably because you have to clamber over, around and even under rocks and ascend trails a that rock wallaby would think twice about, and then think again, for around three and a half hours while being totally amazed at the way there was a new image on almost every second rock face.

What an experience - imagine combining orienteering, mountaineering and trip to the aboriginal version of the Louvre museum, then add a lot of sweat and aching knees, and you're starting to get the picture. Our local guide Thommo was fantastic and was able to tell the story of many of the paintings and relate them back to his life today and how things had changed. He had painted some artwork of his own up there before the local Elder put a stop to new rock art twelve years ago. He wasn't real happy with the decision, but rules are rules, so now he paints on bark canvas and paper at the Injalak Arts and Crafts Centre instead, and makes some money from his work. We clambered over twelve main art sites and one burial site, complete with real skeleton, before a being served up a fantastic lunch under a rock overhang almost at the very top of the hill, which could only be reached by squeezing through a narrow gap and then crawling across an even narrower rock ledge. Spectacular views from this amazing location. Just as amazing was the fact that the bus driver had to bring all the food up the same path we had followed in a back pack! The sixty litres of water at the spot were also carried in the same way, but Lisa (the bus driver) said her boss did that once a week. They certainly work for their money!
A quick visit to the Arts and Crafts Centre before heading back to Jabiru. After dropping us off, Lisa set out for Darwin to drop off the rest of her clients - at 7:30 PM (a 16 hour day!).

Another fantastic day in the Top End.

East Alligator River - not a croc in sight

It begins

Lightning Spirit

Tassie Tiger - they were common up this way before the Dingo came along and out  Darwined them.

Evil Mimi Spirit

Thommo

"Big Bad Man" - His story was 'secret men's business' so Thommo couldn't explain further in mixed company.

Lunch

Kakadu - Yellow Waters and Twin Falls 31 August 2013

Well I was right. It was ugly!

Woke to the sound of the alarm chime (which tries ever so hard to sound cheerful, and fails) at the glorious hour of 05:00 as a last minute check of timing last night revealed that we actually needed to leave camp by 05:40, not 06:00. Showered, dressed, packed some lunch and the obligatory litre after litre of drinking water into the truck by braille, with much stumbling, groaning and muted cursing, and hit the road for Yellow Waters. Constant prayers for a wallaby free road were answered, and we made it to the boat on time.
Was it all worth it? Is the Pope a Catholic? Does Night follow Day? Does Jack Newton swim in circles? Do bears sh....  you get the idea. Too right it was worth it. I doubt the whole two hour cruise would have covered more than five kilometers of the Yellow waters billabong and South Alligator River as we were constantly stopping to look at different birds, tree snakes, crocs, water lilies etc, etc, etc. Just amazing. The guide, Margaret, seemed to be able to spot things before they were even there. She was fantastic and really knew her stuff. The wildlife is so used to the boats that you can generally get up quite close and watch them just go about their stuff. We sat right next to a Darter (apparently that's the proper name for a Shag. Well at least up here it is.) for at least five minutes watching it try to get a fish it had speared off it's beak so it could swallow it. Poor bugger really had to work hard for his breakfast.

Almost as foggy as my head :)

 

White Breasted Sea Eagles

Blue Winged Kookaburra

Azure Kingfisher

Cruise over, it was back to Gagudju Lodge at Coolinda for buffet breakfast. Now that's something I could get used to :)
Waddled back out to the truck with groaning bellies and headed off to the Jim Jim Falls (and Twin Falls) track. 56ks of corrugations settled the stomachs admirably. When stopped at Garnamarr to buy tickets for the boat shuttle to Twin Falls, the woman there advised us to go to Twin Falls first to make sure we wouldn't miss the last boat. She also told us that it was 42 degrees C in the Twin Falls car park yesterday, and not likely to be any cooler today! Took her advice and turned off the main track to Jim Jim and engaged the diff locks for the final 9ks to Twin Falls which took nearly an hour in first and second gear with a little bit of low range through the river crossing to keep the speed down.

Much more fun than the corrugations on the main road.

Was it 42 in the car park? I don't know. Suffice to say, if we were made of wax we would have melted! It was HOT, damn hot. Anyway we set off for the falls. First you walk up the creek bed (sand in the shoes is a constant here) to where the boat docks. Then into the boat with the obligatory tour guide (Lisa)

who welcomes you to the land on behalf of the owner, and gives you some insight into the area and it's importance still to the indigenous people. She also explained why you are not allowed to swim here any more, which is a pity cos it was so hot (I think I mentioned that already) and the water is incredibly clear as it comes direct from the falls which are fed by a spring at the top of the canyon. They catch several salties here every year, so you can never be totally certain it is safe, and the area is used for secret men's business which Lisa couldn't talk about cos she is not a man (all makes sense when you think about it). I think this is ultimately a good thing. The local aborigines are trying to maintain their culture and give their people some purpose and self respect, and it seems to be making a difference. There is nowhere near the number of unemployed locals hanging around outside the shopping center, or anywhere else, that you see in places like Alice or Katherine. And there appears to be a complete lack of VB Coroborrees.
From where the boat drops you, ir is another 500 meters or so of rock scramble and pontoon walkway to the falls. There are a couple of hand pump showers on the pontoon, which we made use of on both crossings to cool off - great idea. Last year's wet season was pretty poor, so only one of the falls was really running, bit it was still well worth the effort. A really beautiful place, and we had it almost to ourselves for most of the time which is quite unusual.













By the time we got back to the car park we were completely drained and decided to give Jim Jim Falls a miss as it would entail a kilometer scramble over rocks each way and there was no water there anyway. The pool and bar back in Jabiru was singing it's siren song. So we retraced our path and headed for home.

Hang on, what about the shovel? Did the cup hooks work, or did Vibratum have his evil way with the shovel mounts again?
Oh ye of little faith. They worked a treat and the shovel stayed exactly where it was supposed to.